One working mama learning to run & to maintain my 100+ pound weight loss!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Unexpectedly crossed a new state off of my running list!

by littlemoreeachday on August 17, 2015

I’m in that interesting mid-point of half marathon training where the runs start to get serious, both in length and in intensity. Fortunately, I’m also nearing the point where the weather is going to turn and we’ll get cooler temps that will make the ever-longer runs easier to handle. This weekend, we celebrated Oliver’s birthday with a trip to the zoo, yummy chocolate cake, Legoland (ugh for me but he loved it!), the Melting Pot and aching hands from toy assembly. We drove down to Kansas City for the surprise Legoland trip and on the way back Sunday, found ourselves at a gas station on the Kansas side of the line. I pulled out the phone and sure enough, I hadn’t yet checked Kansas off my “50 states to run” list somehow so I hopped out at a gas station to run a little half mile (my minimum for counting a state). I’m sure the truck drivers all thought I was nuts, but it was a fun little star to put on my day.

The oh-so-scenic gas station where I crossed Kansas off the list!

As far as the rest of the week, workouts were good for the most part. I did have a tiny hiccup in my speed session and didn’t REALLY get two strength training sessions in, but given our travel and everything else, I think it was good. I also had ONE piece of birthday cake (and it was OMG good) which is a great NSV. I’m grateful that we were able to get away for a little family weekend to celebrate our little man. I can’t believe how big he’s getting!

My Captain America cake turned out pretty good, right?

Workouts

Monday At this point, I cannot remember why this was a treadmill run but it was. 3 miles, nice and easy, before daycare pickup.

Tuesday This was a planned treadmill day, for speed work. I had 600 meter repeats on the schedule. After my warm up mile, I ran the first two at 6.1 mph (a little below 10 minute/mile pace) and was seriously struggling to hang on thanks largely to killer reflux! Note to self: Not that I should be having much Diet Dr Pepper anyway, but definitely NOT on the way to the gym for speed work! Ugh! I confess that during my 3rd and 4th repeats, I tweaked the speed down to 10 minute/mile pace and even then, had to take a walk break for a few seconds in the middle of the 3rd one. Still, I knocked out 4 miles and it was definitely serious effort. I was drenched and slightly embarrassed that I didn’t have time to shower or change before I headed over to pick O up at school. I did push ups and planks with O at bedtime and that was really the only strength training I got in for this day.

Wednesday Rest day! I intended to take a little walk, but just got too busy!

Thursday Tempo run day, with 3.01 miles total after a warm up mile, 1 tempo mile and a cool down mile. I approached this the same as last week: race intervals for the tempo mile (3 minute run/30 second walk) and ended up with a 10:52 tempo mile – faster than last week! This is as much due to less humid weather as actual improvement, I know, but I’ll take it!

Friday 3 miles in the evening after O went to bed, at 13:22 pace. Evening runs are frequently slower for me in the summer – it’s just warm! O and I went to the zoo so I also got in lots of miles of walking hills and carrying a kid. My good deed for the week was rescuing a little girl’s doll that got thrown to the ground as soon as the girl saw a water feature in the zoo. I picked up the doll and brought it to lay on the edge of the water feature, at which point the girl’s brother promptly plopped the doll’s head into the water. Maybe it wasn’t such a good deed after all. 🙂

Saturday 3 miles early in the morning before our big day with Oliver for birthday surprises at 13:02 pace.

On the surprise list: LEGOLAND – heaven for 4 year old boys, not so much for 37 year old moms (my weight in Lego bricks)

Sunday I woke up at 5 am to head out to run around Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. I had 8 miles on the training schedule and finished them (technically 7.95) with an overall pace of 13:16, with the last mile as my fastest. It was nice to watch the sun rise over the building and fountains. I’d checked with a friend in the area to be sure it was safe to run there alone before I headed out. I made several loops of the area so I could stay close in case Oliver and Darrell needed something. I did have to laugh at myself when I was winding down at 7 miles and realized I needed 8 and had to haul myself back out again. Hate that!

I loved all of the pretty little bridges and fountains!

Of course, I can’t forget to tack on my extra 0.5 mile at 12:58 pace in the parking lot too! I did yoga and some strength training with my kettlebell when I got home that evening before crashing. It was a busy weekend!

My baby is so big!

Tonight we’re celebrating O’s first day of pre-kindergarten with dinner at hibachi, but otherwise we don’t have any big plans to challenge eating or workouts to-dos for the week. Somehow, these are always the kinds of weeks that get away from me anyway. 9 miles of long run this week, which will be the farthest I’ve run since the Papillion Half Marathon in May. Knock on wood, we seem to be back to May weather this week so hopefully that will hold! It’s much easier to face almost two hours of running in 50 degree weather than 70 degree weather at 6 am. 🙂

I’ll confess my OCD self notices they aren’t perfect circles but I’m really proud of myself for letting Oliver help rather than keeping him away so the circles would be more perfect. 🙂 It was fun to decorate it together!

Sounds like our training plans are almost in sync. Last weekend was 9 miles for me, the furthest I’ve gone since my halfs in May. And I also had a speedy mile in my tempo run today — and it WAS much more humid! Woohoo!

Oh, I totally agree. I don’t like tempos. And I was kind of afraid of this one because it was a busy morning, hot & humid, and I couldn’t leave as early as I’d like to because of taking care of the animals.

A good run when you’re not expecting it is always such a nice surprise.

The Captain America cake is adorable. Are those M&Ms? My boys were really into Legos when they were young! I bet O really enjoyed his Legoland surprise. I am so impressed that you did a half mile run at a gas station just to check off a state. That’s dedication right there. Thanks very much for linking up with us today.

Now how cool is that running in 50 states! How many have you done so far? I’m just in awe of you and your inspiring weight-loss story! I’ll be doing my first Disney run come January! Yes the cake turned out great! I can only imagine how good it was! Oh and happy blogiversary month to you! Thanks for linking up with us this week ! 🙂

Congratulations on another state checked off your list. I just looked at your list on the blog – looks like you are almost half way to your goal 🙂 Love the picture of O dragging his gigantic back pack…so sweet.

Ha! Very clever to take advantage of running in a new state like that! And kudos on a great week of training. Thinking that your long run is done and still having a mile to go is definitely tough! Good job with toughing it out!